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Scalloped Potato Mash

A baked potato mash topped with butter, cream, parsley, egg yolks, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scalloped Potato Mash

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and fill

  1. In a bowl, combine hot mashed potatoes, butter, cream, parsley, egg yolks, pepper, and salt.

  2. Butter a fire-proof baking dish and dust it with fine bread crumbs.

  3. Fill the dish with the potato mixture and smooth the top with a knife.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the top with oiled butter, sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated cheese.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

  3. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Bind the potato mixture and help it set firmly when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the mash a smoother texture and helping the top brown.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mash soft and creamy.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, cream, egg, pepper, bread, cheese):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, cream, egg, pepper, bread, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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